How many things can go wrong at once?

/ Re-Farmer

Someone just shoot me know. Put me out of my misery.

No, I’m not serious. Just hyperbole, but really?

So we’ve got our septic issues. The pump never turned on during the night. I did check it, and found that m it wasn’t until late morning that I finally heard it turn on, and I immediately went down to check on it.

There was no flow through the filter. In fact, it was still full and nothing had drained out the bottom.

So I did the usual. Shut off the pump, pop the cap off the filter to fill it…

There was no seal.

I primed it, turned the pump back on…

There was no water flow. Nothing.

At this point, it was looking like we needed a new O ring. I’ve been messaging my brother through all this, and he suggested using Vaseline to get a seal. I found a tiny little jar of Vaseline in the bathroom and gave it a try.

Still no seal, still no flow.

I then spent I don’t know how long, calling hardware stores, looking for a 5″ O ring.

No one had.

Even the one in the town to the north of us, which I knew carried their own version of a septic pump filter, didn’t have one. They had a 6″ one.

They did recommend I call an auto place on the same street as them, as they carried all sorts of O rings.

The first question I was asked was, how thick. I never even thought of that, because all the places I called basically had one thickness. It was never a question. I gave the closest I could and he went looking.

They had one.

Yeah!

I started heading to the truck to head out.

As I was unplugging it, the first thing I notice is the front driver’s side tire is really low. So I fire up the compressor to pump it up.

That poor compressor. It was NOT liking the cold!

I got the tire pumped up, then got the truck started to warm up while I opened the gate. As I’m backing the truck out of the garage, I see something odd.

The oil pressure gauge is at 0, and is not moving. At all.

I stopped most of the way out of the garage, so I had room to set up the foot stool to check the oil.

It was fine.

I started the truck again, and the gauge still wasn’t moving. I left the engine to run while I went inside for a bit. I tried calling the garage, but it went to voice mail, so I tried sending a text, instead. Then I went back to the truck.

Now the check engine light was on.

*sigh*

I did not have time to fuss with this. I parked the truck, plugged it back in, locked the gate and headed inside.

Then I started calling plumbers.

Long story short, after getting through to one place and explaining the situation, they recommended someone in the town where the O ring was. I called there and left a message.

Then I went to the basement to try the pump again.

As before, I turned on the pump, but nothing was flowing through the filter. So I shut it off and opened it up.

It was sealed so well, I had to pry it off. It took a while, but the Vaseline made the difference.

I checked things and even switched out the filter baskets, even though that had been done recently, so the one in there was still pretty clean, closed it up and tried again.

Still no flow.

So the problem was not the filter, after all. And the pump seemed to be running pretty normally. So why wasn’t any water flowing?

I ended up calling the first plumber I got through to again, talked to the receptionist and explained what was going on, which she passed on.

At this point, I had so many calls and return calls to so many different places – including the company that installed our new ejector – that I’m starting to get them mixed up.

Long story short, it was suggested the ejector might be frozen. With suggestions and advice from different places, I headed out with a couple of jugs of hot water to see.

From how the ice and snow was on the diverter, clearly the expeller had been working all right until now. It obviously had quite a bit of pressure to create that ice wall so far from the expeller.

The cap is held in place with two screws, which I removed.

It was frozen solid. I couldn’t even rotate the cap.

I poured hot water over it and was eventually able to rotate the cap, but the venturi pipe would not move. I didn’t want to use too much force on it, or it would crack in the cold, but there was no way I could remove it to thaw it out, or to pour hot water into the pipe.

This is a serious problem. There is no way we can thaw this out, which means no septic for the winter.

I was keeping my brother updated through all this, though he’s currently out of province. When talking about the possibility of the ejector being frozen, he brought up something I completely forgot about.

With the problem we were having before, he’d brought over a massive hose for the diverter.

We could set up the diverter, if necessary. We would bypass the ejector system completely. A diverter pipe would be attached to the pump and run out hole in the wall, which is currently filled with spray foam insulation. The hose he’d brought over is now stored in the barn. We could set that up and the pipe from the basement would get drained into the maple grove for the winter.

With the ejector being frozen solid, that is now our final option.

More phone calls needed to be made.

One of those calls was to our septic guy. We need to get the tank emptied, since the pump can’t drain it. We can’t use our water. We still are, for small things, but no showers or doing dishes, and even flushing the toilet has to be avoided.

Thankfully, they will be able to come out today, so we won’t have to set up the honey pot. They’re a cash only business, though, and I don’t have any, but I can pay them later, which is something I’ve done with them before.

It will take a while for them to warm up the truck and get here, as this cold is causing all sorts of vehicle problems for everyone. As I write this, we are under extreme cold warnings, still. The temperature is at -21C/-6, and the wind chill is -29C/-20F

Once the tank is emptied, we’ll have a bit of a grace period and can use our water while waiting for a plumber to come in.

So far, I’ve had one tell me they’re booked solid for 2 weeks. I’ve left a message with the other, explaining what I needed and asking them to call back. I’ve also gotten through to the company that installed the ejector and asked if they could install the diverter for us. They are the furthest away and would be charging mileage, so he suggested I keep calling others. He then asked me to call him back on Sunday evening to update him. If I can’t find anyone, he’ll have someone come out. Otherwise, he wanted me to let him know if we found someone closer.

Which is where we stand right now. The septic guy hasn’t arrived yet, but I was able to get the insulated tarp over the tank lid freed of ice and snow and pulled back far enough to access the lid. Then covered it again, until he gets here.

As I write this, I realize it’s been at least an hour since the septic guy called me back. I hope he’s okay!

The extreme cold warning extends into the wee hours of tomorrow. We’re supposed to have a high of -19C/-2F tomorrow afternoon, and the days are supposed to keep warming up after that.

Just checking the weather now, and we’ve already dropped to -22C/-8F with the windchill now at -31C/-24F. Which could be worse; some places are getting wind chills of -40C/F

It’s past 3pm as I write this. I’d better go top of the kibble for the outside cats and – more importantly – give them more warm water. A lot of the kibble bowls are still really full when I head out. The ones in the kibble house may be sheltered, but there is no warmth. The bowl in the catio, wrapped in its plastic, gets emptied, but now the bowls under the nearby shrine. I’m rather surprised the plastic is making that much of a difference. The bowl in the isolation shelter gets emptied completely. So I try to leave more food at the bowls that get empties, so they don’t have to go into the cold to eat. I want them to stay warm and cozy as much as possible! Their winter fur is obviously helping, though, as I’ve been seeing them all over while outside.

What a day.

How many things can go wrong?

Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know!

The Re-Farmer

14 thoughts on “How many things can go wrong at once?”

    • There is power to the barn that we could power something. I don’t know how much help heat tape would do, considering most of the pipe is underground.

      One plumber suggested putting an ice fishing tent over it and running a heater, but we don’t have anything like that.

      This new expeller doesn’t extend above ground as much as the old one. I’d been thinking of making some sort of fence around it to keep the renter’s cows away from it. Now I’m thinking it might be better to build some sort of insulated box that can be put over it. As long as the effluent can still flow freely, that would help keep things from freezing. It would have to be pretty cow proof. There used to be a box around the old water fountain, and the cows have managed to knock that right apart.

      A job for the summer, though. There’s no way we can install something like that, this time of year!

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      • The original pipe reached about 3-4 feet above ground. The pipe from the house is well below the frost line. It’s the horizontal part that’s the problem. When the pump stops, any liquid should drain back down into the pipe below the freezing line. Apparently, this isn’t that unusual of a thing to happen, though, considering how quickly two different companies said that was the likely cause.

        We don’t have anything large enough to fit over the pipe, unfortunately.

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      • I’m willing to look into anything, though there’s nothing I can do about it now.

        As I’m writing this, however, I’m thinking we could treat is much like a septic field and put straw around it in the winter.

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      • I did some thinking, and then some looking through my engineering books to confirm my guesses, and may have figured out how your system is supposed to work. The line from the pump to the discharge pipe goes through a smaller diameter section of pipe (venturi section) and then the pipe returns to the normal size. The big outer pipe is just to provide space for water to drain.

        In the side of the venturi section is a small hole. Without going into a lot of engineering stuff, when water flows fast enough through the venturi section, water will get sucked in through that small hole. This empties the big outer pipe and that water goes out the discharge line, onto the ground.

        When the water flow stops (the pump turns off), the water in the discharge line will drain out that hole in the venturi and back into that big outer pipe. The water level in that big outer pipe needs to be low enough to be below the frost line.

        If the pump isn’t moving water quickly enough, or doesn’t run long enough, the venturi section won’t be able to suck the water out of the big outer pipe. So, the water level in that big outer pipe rises…and the water level in the discharge pipe will match the level in the big outer pipe. Eventually things freeze up.

        The venturi section is small, so it’s possible for debris to get stuck in the venturi. This is why that filter in the pump is important. The filter should stop stuff too big to pass through the venturi.

        Air…I’ve seen pipes on the inlet side of the pump develop a tiny crack which is too small to allow water to leak out, but can allow air to leak in. This can be made worse if the line from the septic tank going to the pump is too small, or clogged.

        If the pump is inside that canister, but the motor is outside the canister, the motor shaft will need to pass through a seal that keeps water from dripping out, as well as air from getting in. If that seal is worn you can get air in without water dripping out. Again, if the pipe between the septic tank and the pump is clogged, the “air in” problem can be made worse.

        I ***THINK*** this is how things work. But, take it with a “grain of salt” as I could be wrong.

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      • You’ve got it, except for a few details.

        The 4″ outer pipe should only ever get a small amount of water on the bottom. We still have a spare of the old ejector, and it’s open on the bottom; the venturi pipe has its own connector to the main line from the house. He says anything in the 4″ pipe should have slowly seeped into the ground. I never really saw the very bottom of the new one, but it had a brass fittings instead of the plastic one on the spare, and I didn’t get the impression that the 4″ pipe was open at the bottom. I should look through my pictures again, but I doubt I caught a view of the very bottom of the ejector.

        So what should have happened (at least with the old ejector) is that any water on the bottom should have drained away into the soil, which is well below the frost line If, for some reason, it couldn’t, it still should never have gotten much higher than the frost line, really – certainly not more than a foot above ground level – before freezing. That’s why being able to pour hot water and using the copper pipe should have worked.

        As for the pump, that’s in the basement. The filter is a completely separate thing, added to the intake pipe. The pump itself is fully enclosed steel. If there is any air leakage, it is most likely to be on the intake side. If it’s the filter, that’s an easy thing to deal with, but in the past, it took excavating by the house to check the pipes to find a problem. Part of the pipe runs through the concrete floor, so if there’s an air leak there, we’d probably have to bust up the concrete to replace the pipe.

        I guess we’ll get a better idea once the tank is full enough to trigger the pump, and I can see what sort of outflow we have, and can watch how the water flows through the filter.

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      • You mean you’re not going to trigger the pump switch by hand/ :-)

        I agree, if things are working correctly. at most there should be a couple of inches of water in the bottom of the 4 inch pipe.

        Is the pipe between the tank and the pump clear?

        If it froze that far below ground? That’s cold!

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      • The pipe behind the tank and the pump is about 300 feet long. It should be clear-ish (after 50 years, it’s not going to be completely clear!). We’ve been making concentrated efforts through the use of bacteria and enzyme products to break that stuff down. If it was a major issue, we could hire someone to use an extremely powerful chemical to clear it, but that could potentially damage the system, too, so it would be a last ditch effort before excavation.

        For me, it goes back to that ice wall that built up. That could not have happened, so far from the ejector, without a strong outflow. Which tells me that main pipe out is pretty darn clear.

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    • I used to be much like that; could not handle cold well, and really loved those hot summer days. Oddly, as I’ve gotten older, I’m less able to tolerate heat, and more able to tolerate cold. My husband, meanwhile, was the opposite. He used to be the furnace that kept me warm at night. Now, he is always feeling cold! Not something I would have expected as we got older!

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